Due to recent storms which unfortunately took the life of a young man the ants in my local area have been going crazy!

The storm was as of today 2 days ago. The morning after the storm thousands on ants took flight and began the mating process, I found this really interesting to watch as many birds and other animals took advantage of the easy meals. I also took advantage of the nuptial flights and caught one queen trapped in a clump of males during the main frenzy in the morning and two other queens when I got back from school later in the afternoon when I saw about 20 other queens that I did not catch.

Queen 1 is the queen I caught in a clump of males. The males have since died and been removed and the queen has removed her wings.

Queen 2 is one of the queens I caught after school on my driveway. I believe 2 and 3 may be the same species.

Queen 3 is the other queen I caught after school and she will be a test queen as in her test tube setup I have incorporated gravel and dirt.

After all 3 queens pupated their first workers I decided to keep only 1 queen, it was a hard choice but I chose to keep the first queen as she and her workers seem to have more personality and are smaller which should mean they are easier to contain. The other 2 queens were realeased and are actually still going great in the wild as I can see both colonies have built tiny mounds and are still active!

After all 3 queens pupated their first workers I decided to keep only 1 queen, it was a hard choice but I chose to keep the first queen as she and her workers seem to have more personality and are smaller which should mean they are easier to contain. The other 2 queens were realeased and are actually still going great in the wild as I can see both colonies have built tiny mounds and are still active!

I'm new to the site but I am really getting into these ants. I want to start my own colony but where can I get a queen ant (in Maryland)? Also, some of the information is far too techy for me. Any suggested reading for us low level learners (less scientific names/words)?